Rand Paul's Long History Of Hitler Fear-Mongering

Rand Paul, Republican nominee for Senate in Kentucky and
all-around tea party uber-star, has a penchant for predicting the
demise of the United States government and its replacement. And
often, he's used the failure of the Weimar Republic and the rise
of Adolf Hitler's fascist regime as an example to illustrate his
point. It's not that Paul thinks any particular politician alive
today is Hitler -- or even Hitler-like -- but Paul's
reasonably sure that unless something changes soon, America's
financial desperation will put some sort of new Hitler-like
regime just around the bend.

I emailed the Paul campaign to ask about Paul's theory that an
American Hitler was on the way -- I have yet to hear back. It was
the same story the last time
we highlighted Paul's Hitler warnings, in May. Back then, we
only had one.

That's no longer the case. Trusty TPM intern Jon Terbush and I
spent the afternoon combing through old Paul public appearances
to find other references to Hitler and his potential re-emergence
on the American political scene. We found quite a few.

October 2007 -- Burlington, Vermont

They always have things in there you don't know about. I'll
give you a good example. With the No Child Left Behind
legislation, in that legislation there's a small line that says
all 14-year-olds upon entering high school, his information
will be given to military recruiters. My son just started high
school... and we just happened to see this paper and if we had
not seen that paper his information would have been to Army
recruiters automatically...they shouldn't be taking all
14-year-olds, I wrote down that this reminded me of when
Napoleon comes back from Elba he's already killed all the 16-,
17-, 18-, 19-year-olds... he has to recruit 14-year-olds. Same
with Hitler.

Watch (comments start at 0:37):

What happened in Germany when the Weimar Republic printed up so
much money and carried it around in wheelbarrows? There was a
collapse and they actually voted in a Hitler. You could get
something like that in our country if we're not careful and
vigilant.

Watch (comments start at 5:32):

June 2009 -- Carrol County, Kentucky

And I'm not out here to be a financial planner and to tell you
to take all your money and dump it in gold, but I would have a
percentage in there, because if everything goes to hell in a
hand basket, if we have complete catastrophe, if we have what
happened in Weimar Republic where people were walking around
with wheelbarrows full of cash, where the workers demanded
being paid twice a day, because by noon they wanted to be paid,
because by 5 p.m. it would be worth less.

Watch (comments start at 8:14):

July 2009 -- Alex Jones Show

The real danger is not a bankruptcy of the Federal Reserve. The
danger is I think runaway inflation where the one becomes
worthless. I fear more at times like the Weimer Republic in
1923 where the Germans carried their money around in wheel
barrows, the workers were paid twice a day because between noon
and 5 o'clock the money lost half its value. That's the kind of
situation I fear and the unrest and the civil disorder that
comes with destroying the money. Whether or not people will
give up their gold, I think people will give up their gold
about as likely as they will be to give up the guns anymore."

Watch (comments start at 6:15):

April 2010 -- National Public Radio

The pictures in our history books, most people have seen them:
money in wheelbarrows, people burning their money for fuel. And
out of that came chaos and came Hitler.

Listen (comments start at 1:57)

July 2010 -- Webster Hall, New York

Some will remember in 1923 the pictures of wheelbarrows full of
money and the money became so worthless that they would burn it
for fuel. The workers demanded to be paid twice because at noon
it was worth - something was worth half as much by 5 o'clock.
That can happen in a civilized country. In Germany it led to
Hitler. Hitler was basically elected in his first election. But
he was elected because there was chaos. And you've got a strong
leader who said, give me your liberty and I'll give your
security. Many of you remember the Franklin quote: He said, you
give us your liberty for security and you'll have neither. That
is the danger.